IT is a touch ironic that hospitals in the forefront of modern medical scanning have had to recall patients for old-fashioned x-ray scans.

Bosses at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, in County Durham, The Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, and Hexham General Hospital, Northumberland, thought they were investing in the future when they installed the latest computerised scanning equipment.

The Agfa Embrace CR1A computerised radiography equipment promised to speed up and improve the quality of diagnostic information derived from mammography machines.

Instead of radiologists having to take decisions based on grainy x-ray photographic plates, they would be able to call up detailed digital images on a computer screen.

In fact, the recently opened Bishop Auckland hospital was the first NHS centre in the UK to install the breast scanning technology, in June 2002.

That was followed by Hexham General, another new hospital, which began using the Agfa computerised radiography equipment in July last year. A few months later - November last year - The Friarage joined the elite band.

Everything was going well until an alert was issued by the UK Medicines and Healthcare Producers Regulatory Agency (MHRA), a watchdog body that monitors new drugs and medical technology.

Radiologists at a hospital in France, which used the same new Agfa technology, had reported that an image produced by the system did not reveal a breast abnormality, known as microcalcifications.

What concerned the French medics was the system's apparent inability to pick up on images that were clearly visible on conventional x-ray films from the same patient.

Microcalcification may indicate the presence of cancer in the breast, although the great majority of these are usually found to be benign.

The problem was reported to Agfa and the French equivalent of the MHRA.

The UK hospitals immediately withdrew the suspect equipment on the advice of the MHRA and, as a precaution, decided to contact the 2,244 women whose scan results had been processed using the Agfa and offer them conventional scanning diagnosis.

Other European countries have decided to take a more relaxed attitude towards offering new scans to women.

Philip Miller, spokesman for Agfa UK, expressed regret at the turn of events but expressed confidence in the future of computerised radiography.

"We sell large amounts of X-ray equipment across Europe and we have been doing this for more than 100 years," he said.

"This particular system, which is a small part of what we do, is the only one where there has been an inquiry."

Agfa technicians would "check and double check again" to ensure that any problems with the computerised radiography equipment are ironed out, said Mr Miller.